South-coast starlets enjoy Brean break

Netballers from Portsmouth, Gosport and Fareham made their annual trip to Somerset at the weekend

A mixture of 21 players from teams including Jets, Angels, Wrong Direction and Stars got up to their usual antics and no-one disappointed with their netball play or fancy dress.

All three newly-formed teams were fixtured to play on the first morning in different groups.

‘Hangover From Hell’ finished top in their group with impressive wins over Carol Ann’s, Mid-Range, Harbury Hornets, OBA, Camelot, Pacers and Fusion Storm – not allowing any team to get double figures against them.

‘Worse For Wear’ finished second in their group after only dropping one game against Titans Thunder.

They recorded good wins against Bradley, Hayle, CN Select, Vale, Delta Reds and Red hot steppers.

‘Never Drinking Again’ again finished second in their group, dropping the one game against Tilehurst.

But despite some position switching due to an injury and playing two halves of different matches with only six players, they beat Carol Anne, Highway, Sapphires, Lodge Park, Somerset and Redditch.

Impressively, all three teams advanced through to the cup section – but only after an evening of drinking and dancing, with Strictly Come Dancing the fancy dress theme of choice.

Sunday morning was quiet with people recovering from the effects of the night before but the teams headed to the courts to compete in the cup.

Hangover From Hell showed no sign of the previous night’s antics being victorious in all three fixtures against Redditch, Bradley and Harbury.

Worse For Wear’s results were more in keeping with their name, however, as they claimed one win out of their three games against Dreams.

Losses to OBA and Sirens confirmed their exit from the competition.

Never Drinking Again repeated Hangover’s feat with three wins against OBA, Vale and Highway.

But their bid for glory ended in the next round with a 10-6 loss to Titans Thunder.

Hangover From Hell advanced to the semi-finals with wins over Titans Storms (7-6) and Titans Stars (9-5) but lost out to the eventual runners up Midrange B.

Organiser Lara Ayling said: ‘I would like to thank the girls for making the whole weekend a fun one.

‘The newcomers fitted in superbly and a huge thanks must go to Julie Beames who cooked food for all 26 of us, Aly Bradley for umpiring and Roisin Mitchell, Jayne Knight, Lucy Cusack and Kerry Horne for being our super supporters.’